Ann H Read online

  “Half,” she said. “My father is shifter.”

  “How’d you get messed up in this shit?” He took a deep breath and once more was hit with her sweet scent.

  “My father owed Charlie a lot of money that he couldn’t pay back. So he took me as payment.” She rolled her eyes. “Charlie Stentin is a very crooked shark. He has lots of money that he likes to loan people so he can get stuff other than money back. He’s also impotent. On a full moon he doesn’t have the normal erection but still has the burn of the heat. The only way he can take care of the need is by watching others do it. My father wasn’t able to pay Charlie what he owed him and instead of Charlie taking what little of value we owned he took me instead. My father tried to fight him, but Charlie had one of his men beat him up so he wouldn’t stop him from taking me.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Diana. What’s yours?”

  “Brandon Michael.” He rubbed his face, trying to shake the drug off as well as fight the itchy sensation of his heat. “Kind of shitty for your father to let him just take you.”

  “He didn’t have a choice.” Her voice dropped and, instantly, Brandon picked up hurt from her. “It was either me or my mother. He had to choose, and when he didn’t Charlie flipped a coin. I lost.” She took a ragged breath and he could smell her tears. “Doesn’t really matter anyway, their all dead.”

  “What?”

  “My father tried to stop him anyway and Charlie had them shot. It was a statement for others to not screw him out of money, or at least that is what he told me.”

  Brandon didn’t know to say. He couldn’t get over that this man, who bought him, was going to do lord only knows what to him, had killed her family over money. Yet, in their world, that kind of shit happened all the time. Hell, in the old days a father could kill a young male for touching his daughter before a Gathering.

  “So what does he want with me then?” he asked.

  “He likes to watch.” Her voice broke off but he heard her anyway. “We are his entertainment.”

  Brandon closed his eyes and suppressed the groan. This is just what he didn’t need, not right now. “So what is he going to do then on this damn red moon crap?” He strained to ask the question.

  “Like I said, he enjoys watching.”

  “Shit,” he said under his breath. It’s rising! “You’re, um, half right.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you have the cycle?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Shit,” he said again a bit louder.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “This moon.” Brandon slowly stood up, holding the bars, and shaking them to see how strong they were. Very. This Charlie must’ve used himself as a tester to see if the cage would hold another male. “We need to get out of here.”

  “We can’t.”

  “We will.”

  * * * *

  Charlie Salas sat behind his desk in his small office in the dark, watching his two pets with a smile on his face. On his computer webcam was a gentleman he hadn’t met face to face, but one that is lining Charlie’s pockets very nicely. He didn’t know the guy’s name and didn’t want to make things all that much safer.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to watch?” Charlie asked, turning in his leather seat to the man on the camera. As usual, he couldn’t see the face. “It’s very interesting to watch a mating in the full moon.”

  “I’ll pass.”

  “I heard about this fire that happened to one of the new members,” Charlie went on. “That wasn’t your handy work was it? I mean, I’d hate for our arrangement to get complicated.”

  “It won’t.”

  “Well, it will if you keep, um, how shall I put it, oh I don’t know, kill the new order.”

  “What I do on the side is of no concern to you, Salas, or our business.”

  Charlie swallowed hard. The detachment of this man scared him. They only met on line like this, never in person, so Charlie didn’t know if he was human or shifter. Human would be laughable, since Charlie was so damn scared of him.

  Clearing his throat, Charlie picked up the paper. “I’m having a bit of trouble locating the name you gave me. If this one is on to you hunting him then I’m sure its reason enough for him to go into hiding or he could be dead.”

  “He isn’t dead.”

  “We’ll I keep looking but don’t hold your breath. Now here is another name for you. I’ll email it and expect same payment.” A smile and his mystery man logged off. “Always a pleasure.” Charlie turned back to his pets and moaned low in pleasure. “Oh you two are going to be so good to watch.”

  He hated how life fucked him up. The only way now for him to deal with the full moon was to watch others fuck through it. Charlie sighed at the thought of how he was impotent only on the full moon. It was strange really. He could have sex anytime he wanted, except when he needed it the most. His heat came, but with it a very limp cock. The doctors couldn’t explain the why of it. Strangely enough, he did find an outlet for his heat. He could watch others and it gave him the release he needed.

  Therefore, at the age of fifty, Charlie Salas became a freak who watched others fuck in order to get off. It sickened him to have to go through this just to get over the full moon. It also depressed him some as well to know that he couldn’t be the one to enjoy Diana.

  “It’s going to be a long red moon,” he sighed, picking up the phone to call his men. “Move them to the room, and give Diana the shot. I want her nice and hot for him tonight.”

  * * * *

  Brandon jumped when the men came into the room, lights came on bright, blinding him, and they went right to Diana. She moved back as they opened the door, but she didn’t have much room to back away. One took hold of her, jerked her close and the other stuck her arm with something. They then pulled her from the cage and took her out, leaving him alone.

  Adrenaline began to pound in his body with the thought of what they might be doing to her. When they came back, a collar and cuffs in their hands, Brandon braced himself knowing now this wasn’t the time to fight. One of the men held a gun, or what looked like a gun. “On your knees, facing away.”

  Brandon slowly lowered himself down and turned. They unlocked the cage, opened it, and instantly took hold of his arms. One put the collar round his neck, locking it and the other stuck him in the arm then put the cuffs around his wrists.

  “Time to play and I do suggest you be a good boy and give him a nice show.” A hard yank and Brandon was once more up on his feet being led from the cage like a dog on a leash.

  Brandon was taken to a large room with a setup like a bedroom, only he knew it wasn’t one. A large iron frame bed sat in the middle of the room and all around on every wall were floor to ceiling mirrors. No doubt, two-way mirrors, which meant their host was sitting behind one of them, watching and jerking himself off.

  He was taken to the bed, pushed down. He couldn’t move, and lucky for him, the shit they just gave him had Brandon feeling like his whole body weighed a ton. He couldn’t move, barely see, and all of his shifter senses were shit.

  Once he was in place, the men left and the ceiling overhead opened up. A bright red full moon shined down on him, touching his naked flesh. Brandon closed his eyes, turned his head, and arched as his heat hit him hard like a punch in the gut. He growled the hunger to mate, to fuck overwhelming him. He saw everything in red, felt the animal inside surface, his human self had gone dormant.

  At the far end, right straight across from the bed a door opened and someone shoved Diana inside, dressed in a sheer short thin strap nightie that did nothing to cover her body. He saw everything on her and his mouth watered to taste, and his cock pounded to life.

  “You will fuck her,” a male voice came out from overhead. Brandon tried to fight the animal long enough to make sense of everything going on. He couldn’t. “Now take her, and make me proud.”

  Chapter Two

  Diana stood as far away from the bed as she
could and jumped when she heard Charlie’s voice. She knew he watched. This was the reason he’d taken her and Brandon too. A show—a mating show, just for Charles Salas.

  She knew what the males were like on a full moon and heard the stories about the red one, however, she never saw a heated male this close before. Being a half breed, Diana didn’t have the shifter cycles and her father always went out of town with her mother during the full moon. Therefore, she never had the need for a safe house or the protection. Her mother once told her that she had the human cycle and would never feel the need to mate as a full shifter would.

  Yet it didn’t feel like that right now. Whatever the drug they stuck her with changed everything and she felt this strange need coming, the need to push Brandon down and simply take him. It wasn’t right. She never felt like this, ever!

  What did they do to me? Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, opened them slowly, and looked at the male across from her. This was her first real good look at him and he was without a doubt mouthwatering.

  Lean, fit, muscles everywhere and a cock that she could clearly see throbbing for attention. It has to be the drug! I can smell his heat! Shaking her head, trying to clean what she was feeling from her senses, but every time she took a deep breath, she smelled him!

  “I’m waiting,” Charlie sang out overhead.

  Diana met Brandon’s eyes and mouthed, I’m sorry. He nodded back, scooted to the end of the bed. She went to him, crawled up on his lap, and kissed him deep. Brandon moaned into the kiss, his arms went around her body pressing her tight to him.

  Oh, it felt so damn good to be in his arms. Too good and yet not enough. She needed to get closer, needed to still the burn she felt below.

  Reaching down between them, closing her hand around his cock, Diana poised it at her entrance, still kissing Brandon deeply. Slowly she lowered herself downward, whimpering at the stretching, burning sensation his cock gave her.

  One thing that Charlie did to her right after he took her from her home was have her examined. Discovering her still intact, he had the doctor break the hymen, saying he didn’t want it in the way when the time came for her. She didn’t understand it then, but she did now. Feeling Brandon stretch her, burn her, fill her up but not give her one small amount of pain that she had heard about had her understanding it all. If it was there, she would have to stop and Charlie didn’t want them to stop.

  “Please,” she whispered against Brandon’s lips, tears falling down her face. “Do it.”

  With a deep growl, Brandon flipped them over, bouncing her on the bed and moved within her. He took her hard, thrusting his cock in and out fast, driving her to a pleasure she could only dream about. She screamed when the first climax hit, and still he surged into her. His lips moved down her chin to the throat then down to the shoulder. She gasped when he nipped her, sucked, and nipped again.

  Diana wrapped her legs around his hips, felt a second quickly coming, and didn’t know what the hell to do. His one hand went up her back into her hair, fisted the locks, and pulled her head to the side. A sharp pain hit her shoulder the same second she felt him swell inside her. The pain triggered a second orgasm, one that had her gasping to breathe, nails digging into his back. Brandon growled against her shoulder thrust one last time and stopped.

  “More!” Charlie bellowed out, his voice sounding strained.

  Another growl by Brandon, and Diana found herself flipped over and him once more thrusting into her from behind. She cried out, pushed back against him, and took the power he gave.

  Once more, he took her hard and fast, this time it ended much, much quicker than the first. He yelled, swelled, pushed her over once more, and then dropped on top of her, breathing hard.

  “I can’t move,” he panted against her shoulder.

  Diana couldn’t speak. She lay there, with him lying on her backside, working to get her breathing under control.

  “You get forty minutes,” Charlie said. “Then go again.”

  Brandon groaned and rolled off her, she stayed put. “You okay?”

  “I don’t want to do this in front of him,” she whispered.

  He touched her back and instantly she felt a bit at ease. “I’m sorry if I was rough with you. This isn’t how a girl should have her first time.”

  Diana turned her head to look at him, “How’d you know it was my first?”

  Brandon got closer and she widened her eyes, not knowing what he might do. “Just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean the body won’t tell.”

  She lowered her eyes, “He had a doctor break it,” she said low. “Said it would be in the way.”

  “This Charlie guy is really fucked up,” he sighed, lying back again. “He has one twisted idea of what pleasure is.”

  “I heard my father say a few days before Charlie showed up that he couldn’t get it up on the full moon and no one could explain why. That the only way he could get any kind of relief was by watching others.”

  “Like I said—fucked up.”

  “I don’t want to do it again for him.” Once more she whispered, shivering with disgust.

  He looked up. “I don’t think we will have to.” She also looked up. The red moon was starting to disappear. “My heat is over. Doubt any drug of his could make it come back.”

  Diana jumped when the door flew open and four men came inside. Two grabbed her and two took hold of him as well, jerking them from the bed and out of the room. They went through a hallway and into a bathroom where they were pushed inside and the door closed.

  “Guess we are to clean up,” Brandon said, looking around.

  Diana hugged herself, also looking around. She could feel Charlie’s eyes on them, but couldn’t pinpoint the where of them.

  “You go first,” he said.

  Diana quickly looked at him. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel that comfortable at the moment stripping to nothing before him, even though they just had sex.

  “Together!” Charlie bellowed.

  She jumped again, closing her eyes.

  Brandon moved around her, turned the shower on, and turned her toward it by guiding her with his hands on her shoulders. “Relax,” he said low in her ear. “One more show and he’ll leave us alone. Then I can work on getting us out of here.”

  She shook her head, turning it slightly towards him. “You don’t understand. There’s going to be another red moon. You’ll be in heat again.”

  “Not for him I won’t.” He took hold of her thin nightie and pulled it up over her head. “Get in and I’ll make you forget we’re being watched.”

  She stepped in, hot water beat upon her body, taking away stress and some of the knowledge that they were once more being watched. She felt Brandon join her, stepping behind her.

  “Close your eyes,” he said low in her ear. “Close them and concentrate only on me.”

  Brandon took the soap in hand, made up a nice amount of lather, and began to rub his hands on her back, rubbing to ease the tense muscles and to get rid of that nagging sensation of being watched. Like her, he didn’t like being watched, but for the moment, he didn’t have much of a choice.

  “Just relax,” he told her again. “I’ll take care of it all.”

  * * * *

  Charlie was just about to get off once more with them in the shower, when his phone went off. Normally he wouldn’t answer the damn thing, only this call and the number was his new business partner, if one could call that cold-blooded fuck that.

  He shut the monitor off, sighed, and fixed his pants before picking up the phone. “This is an unexpected call.”

  “The name you gave me is fake.” Charlie thought he was going to be sick. Screwing around with this guy wasn’t something he ever planned or wanted to do.

  “I—I assure you that is the name he gave me when we met.”

  “I wasted time on this one, time that I don’t have to waste. Payment is due and you will be the one to pay it.” The phone went dead and Charlie began to sweat. This wasn
’t good, not by a long shot. Wiping his face, looking around his room he thought and thought fast. Picking the phone back up, he dialed it. “I need help to get lost right now, and I have pets.”

  Chapter Three

  Brandon sat in the back of a van, his wrists cuffed together in front of him, chains going from around his neck all the way to his ankles. He looked and felt like one of those criminals you see on TV with shackles and shit. Across from him, Diana, without any kind of chains, since she wasn’t a threat like him and two men also joined them with guns in hand.

  Charlie moved them. Right after the shower, towels were wrapped around their bodies and they were taken from the bathroom. Clothes were tossed to them both, thin loose pajama pants for him and a long nightgown for her. Nothing was said. They dressed fast, he got suited with the chains, and both were shoved into the van. Where they were headed, he had no clue.

  Taking a glance out the back windows, he saw the sun slowly rise. That gave him a full day before the next red moon, the next show. He needed to think, needed to figure out a way they could get out of this shit before the moon rose and changed again. He really didn’t want to do another show for that sick fuck.

  Hanging his head down and looking away from the back window, Brandon looked back at Diana. Her face was white, the fear he could smell. It filled up the van quickly, making him itchy to do something to ease it.

  Something black caught his eye. Brandon turned again to the back doors, watching as a black truck quickly advanced towards them. He sat up straighter, watched closely and when he saw a fast glimpse of hair in the back, Brandon knew something major was about to happen.

  Like watching a slow motion movie, someone stood up from the back of the truck with a very large gun. Brandon moved fast. He lunged at Diana, grabbed her, and protected her as best as he could. A shot rang out; it landed right under the van, rocking it back and forth so damn hard it tipped. Diana screamed right as it went over, flipping several times. He did his best to take the blunt of the tumbling from her, but in the end, he was thrown to the other side when it stopped.